Woman Punched by California Highway Patrol Officer Receives $1.5M in Settlement
The homeless woman who was brutally beaten and punched by a California Highway Patrol police officer over summer will receive $1.5 million as part of a settlement reached on Wednesday.
Video footage captured by spectators showed the victim, 51-year-old Marlene Pinnock, being repeatedly punched in the head and face by CHP officer Daniel Andrew on July 1.
The incident occurred after California police received several calls about Pinnock, who was walking barefoot along the side of a highway. However, a search warrant states that when Andrew approached her, she resisted his commands and pushed him away, according to Fox News. Eventually, he threw her down and punched her multiple times.
Andrew straddled Pinnock on the ground as she resisted by "kicking her legs, grabbing the officer's uniform and twisting her body," the warrant said. Andrew "struck her in the upper torso and head several times with a closed right fist," it states.
The warrant also said that Pinnock suffered no signs of physical injury and refused medical treatment. However, it was later discovered that Pinnock spent a month recovering in the hospital and that the CHP seized her medical records.
"She suffered a traumatic head injury," Pinnock's attorney Caree Harper said, reports CBS News. "How can you give away files about someone injured ... to the very people who beat her?"
Under the agreement, which was reached after nine hours of mediation, Andrew will resign from the CHP. He was previously placed on paid administrative leave. There is also the chance that he could still be charged criminally in the case.
Pinnock, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had stopped taking medication for a few months prior to the altercation, opened up about the incident in an interview with the AP last month.
"He grabbed me, he threw me down, he started beating me," she said. "I felt like he was trying to kill me, beat me to death."
Harper said the settlement meet their demands by ensuring that Andrew would no longer work in law enforcement.
"One of the things we wanted to make sure of was that she was provided for in a manner that accommodated her unique situation in life," Harper said, ",and that the officer was not going to be an officer anymore and we secured those things."
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